The present invention relates to exercise equipment, and more specifically to a stationary exercise device for simulating a range of stepping motions, including skiing, walking, jogging, running and climbing.
The benefits of regular aerobic exercise has been well established and accepted. Because of inclement weather, time constraints and for other reasons, it is not possible to always walk, jog or run outdoors or swim in a pool. As such, various types of exercise equipment have been developed for aerobic exercise. For example, cross country skiing exercise devices simulate the gliding motion of cross country skiing. Such machines provide a good range of motion for the muscles of the legs. Treadmills are also utilized by many people for walking, jogging or even running. One drawback of most treadmills is that during jogging or running, significant jarring of the hip, knee, ankle and other joints of the body may occur. Another type of exercise device simulates stair climbing. Such devices can be composed of foot levers that are pivotally mounted to a frame at their forward ends and have foot receiving pads at their rearward ends. The user pushes his/her feet down against the foot levers to simulate stair climbing. Resistance to the downward movement of the foot levers is provided by springs, fluid shock absorbers and/or other elements.
The aforementioned devices exercise different muscles of the user""s legs and other parts of the body. Thus, to exercise all of these muscles, three separate exercise apparatus are needed. This not only may be cost prohibitive, but also many people do not have enough physical space for all of this equipment. Further, if only one of the foregoing exercise apparatus is purchased by a user, the user may tire of always utilizing the singular equipment and may desire to use other types of equipment.
Through the present invention, a singular piece of equipment may be utilized to simulate different exercise apparatus, including cross country skiing, walking, jogging, running and climbing. Further, jogging and running are simulated without imparting shock to the user""s body joints in the manner of exercise treadmills.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the drawings, discussion and description which follow.
The exercise device of the present invention utilizes a frame configured to be supported on a floor. The frame defines a rearward pivot axis about which first and second foot links are coupled to travel along an arcuate path relative to the pivot axis. The foot links, adapted to support the user""s feet, have forward ends that are engaged with a guide mounted on the frame to enable the forward ends of the foot links to travel back and forth along a defined path. The angular elevation of the guide and/or the elevation of the guide relative to the frame may be selectively changed to alter the path traveled by the foot supporting portion of the first and second links thereby to simulate various types of stepping motion.
In a more specific aspect of the present invention, the guide includes rails for receiving and guiding the forward ends of the foot links. The rails may be raised and lowered relative to the frame. For example, the guides may be pivotally mounted on the frame, and the angle of inclination of the guides may be selectively altered.
In a yet more specific aspect of the present invention, the guides may be in the form of tracks that engage with the forward ends of the foot links. The elevation and/or angular orientation of the tracks relative to the frame may be selectively changed thereby to alter the types of stepping motion experienced by the user.
In another aspect of the present invention, the guide for the forward ends of the foot links may include one or more pivot or rocker arms pivotally supported by the frame, with the lower ends of the rocker arms pivotally connected to the forward ends of the foot links. The lengths of the rocker arms may be lengthened or shortened thereby to raise and lower the connection point between the rocker arms and the forward ends of the foot links, thereby to change the type of stepping motion experienced by the user.
In a further aspect of the present invention, flywheels are mounted on a rearward portion of the frame to rotate about the frame pivot axis. The rearward ends of the foot links are pivotally pinned to the flywheels at a selective location from the frame pivot axis. The flywheel serves not only as the coupling means between the rearward ends of the foot links and the frame pivot axis, but also as a momentum storing device to simulate the momentum of the body during various stepping motions.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, resistance may be applied to the rotation of the flywheels, to make the stepping motion harder or easier to achieve. This resistance may be coordinated with the workout level desired by the user, for instance, a desired heart rate range for optimum caloric expenditure. A heart rate monitor or other sensor may be utilized to sense the desired physical parameter to be optimized during exercise.
In a still further aspect of the present invention, the rearward end of the foot links are connected to the pivot axis by a connection system that allows relative pivoting motion between the pivot axis and foot links about two axes, both orthogonal (transverse) to the length of the foot links. As such, the forward ends of the foot links are free to move or shift relative to the rearward ends of the foot links in the sideways direction, i.e., traverse to the length of the foot links.
In another aspect of the present invention, the forward ends of the foot links may be supported by rollers mounted on the frame. The rollers may be adapted to be raised and lowered relative to the frame thereby to alter the inclination of the foot links, and thus, the types of foot motion experienced by the user.
In still further aspects of the present invention, the inclination of the foot links may be altered by other techniques thereby to selectively change the types of foot motion experienced by the user. For instance, the forward end of the frame may be raised and lowered relative to the floor. Alternatively, the rearward pivot axis may be raised and lowered relative to the floor. Still alternatively, a pair of downwardly depending pivot arms may be used to support the forward ends of the foot links. In this regard, the upper end of one of the pivot arms is pinned to the forward end of a foot link at one location and the upper end of the second pivot arm is connectable to the forward end of the foot link at various locations therealong. The lower ends of both of the arms are coupled together to a roller that rides on the frame just above the floor as the foot links move fore and aft during operation of the apparatus. By adjusting the location of the upper end of the movable arm along the foot link, the elevation of the forward end of the foot link may be altered relative to the frame.